Beckham’s goal, Manchester United’s All-time XI and Ferguson blames Ronaldo
A few news items to go through quickly this morning.
David Beckham is captain again
David Beckham scored his first goal for LA Galaxy, in his first competitive match, with his first shot on goal…with a trademark freekick. If it wasn’t for the visible relief on the faces of Galaxy fans who have endured a lot of stick (as has Beckham) for his ankle, the script was monotonous and predictable.
Becks followed the assist up with a goal and was subbed off after 63 minutes and all is well now for LA Galaxy. They never overran DC United but it was convincing enough to get peoples’ hopes up and now they’ll face Pachua in the Superliga final, which is supposed to be a big deal, or something.
Here’s the Beckham video:
Catch the match report and more coverage from the US soccer blog, StateSide Footy.
Manchester United’s All-time XI
Picked by thousands of Manchester United fans through a voting process that took all summer, here is the ‘Premier League’ XI for Manchester United:
Schmeichel
Neville, Rio, Stam, Irwin
Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs
Rooney, Cantona
Predictable in the most part, although in terms of impact on league fortunes I’d replace Rooney with Ruud van Nistelrooy and put Roo with Ron on the bench. Otherwise, it’s fair, no? Ronaldo’s has had one really big season and everyone’s crazy about him, but Becks was here for a lot longer and had a bigger impact on the club’s fortunes.
Ferguson says Ronaldo to blame for red card
Fergie’s right - Pompey players had singled out Ronaldo and were constantly provoking him. However, Ferguson is only telling half the story, because the Ronaldo we know and have seen from last season rises above provocation - that was a key part of his ‘growing up’ last season.
Ronaldo was more frustrated about not getting the ball yesterday, and like I said in the match report, it was that factor combined with the provocations that led to the red card.
And speaking of the referee (Fergie should really lay off the referees and the personal rivalry bullshit), Bennett gave another wrong decision when he gave Muntari a second yellow - Carrick played for the foul and went down very easily. Sorry Carra, love you to death but playing like that isn’t on any day.
That’s it for now - there’s a bit about Sheffield United suing West Ham over Tevez, but you don’t need me to tell you how pathetic that has become, do you?
If you’ve missed it, see the playing-like-shit midweek review and the portsmouth vs manchester united match report.
Short-minded people…..why isn’t Andy Cole or Dwight Yorke on the list? they had a much bigger effect on the club than RVN and Rooney(hopefully that will change though). Also thought Bruce should be in for Ferdinand. Current players are a lot more hyped so they got some undeserved votes IMO.
I’d chose Pallister over Stam any day of the week.
The whole ‘Beckham-is-overrated’ & ‘let’s all ridicule the MLS’ crap is getting seriously boring now; if you have nothing productive to say, then just keep your monotonous and predictable articles to yourself.
Strikarz-well noted about the MLS and Beckham bashing. Ahmed, bro, bit more respect please, footy’s footy wherever, be it bootless with a can for a ball or over-hyped or not players going for a final hurrah to the MLS. The premiership has fielded more than its fair share of crap teams and style of play.. United past two games could fall under that category, all that play and attack amoutning to zilch is criminal. But, back to the point, footy’s the bootiful game and better for it for slowly snail pace converting the Americans who are mad over high-scoring games like Basketball, which IMO are ping-pong games ‘we hoop one-you get the ball and hoop us back’ and highly individual at times. So Ahmed, come on, you’re a far better, mature, writer than you’ve let on with that little “now they’ll face Pachua in the Superliga final,which is supposed to be a big deal,or something” comment.
And yeah, how comes no Yorke and Cole? And I agree wih Ron&Roo bench with RVN starting. And no Pallister over Stam, I know Stam was a punk for opening his big mouth over Fergie supoosedly tapping him up but you can’t deny his stature, his everything on the pitch- a giant of a defender, miles miles better than Rio, someone that Rio has the potential of bettering but that’s for the future Glad that Best didn’t come into it, he was an amazing footballer and did as much as any other United Great to get us on the map and make us what we are,but football’s not just about what’s on the park, it’s about everything else and footballer’s are meant to be, no have to be by virtue of their privileged stations in society-whether they like it or not,standard bearers of decency and clean-living (which by the way a lot of footballers in the modern day can’t claim to being by any strecth of the imagination). Cantona was outspoken, kicked a racist fan in the face and got suspended for it, did his time and came back a better player, had bags of attitude AND played sublime football. Keane was rough around the edges, was a bit wild in his young days but at United he matured into the model pro and is carrying on the good work into management. Two of my personal favourites, Cantona & Keane. Scholesy- don’t get me started, love the man to bits..
For people who are carping about the ‘criticism’ of Becks, give me a fucking break and hit this link, then read all that I’ve written about Becks in the past.
I’m not asking for much, but get an idea of where I stand before you accuse me
Eh, I don’t see where Ahmed said Beckham is overrated although that is what I think. And yes the MLS is shit, so is the Irish league(in FIFA game this year
) and so are most leagues except for the big European and South American leagues but quite frankly who cares? I mean as long as you like it then it shouldn’t matter who else says anything about it (myself included)
Yeh when did anyone call Beckham overated
he is good but i still no like him.
My Greatest United XI:
1 Schmeichel
2 Foulkes 13 Roberts(Charlie) 6 Byrne
4 Edwards 16 Keane(C)
12 Robson 11 Giggs
8 Charlton(VC)
7 Best 14 Cantona
Reserves: 21 Stepney, 19 Ferdinand, 20 Neville, 3 Irwin,
23 Beckham, 18 Scholes, 10 Hughes.
All-time greatest United XI:
Peter Schmeichel
Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Pallister, Denis Irwin
George Best, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eric Cantona
Ok, so Ronaldo’s still quite young and relatively inexperienced. But just give him a few more seasons, and he’ll become the best in the world.
Just DON’T move to Real Madrid, please…
Don’t think any other team has such a wealth of players to choose from (maybe Spurs?). Anyways, my all time United XI, playing 3-5-2; this type of formation can be defensively suspect but who cares with such players to choose from:
Peter Schmeichel
Paul McGrath Jaap Stam Denis Irwin
Roy Keane Bryan Robson Ryan Giggs
George Best Bobby Charlton
Denis Law Eric Cantona
Subs bench: Eric Van Der Saar, Nobby Stiles, Paul Scholes, Mark Hughes, Christiano Ronaldo.